I’ve been sitting here looking out my window and thinking how pretty it looks out there. Everything is green, the skies are clear, and there’s a slight breeze that moves the leaves on the tree in the prettiest way. But I live in Texas and this is July, so I know the truth. Outside of my air-conditioned comfort zone it is hot and muggy, and within minutes I will want to go back inside, because the view of something and the experience of that same thing are often very different.
From my window, I can see the homes of my neighbors and it looks like most streets in middle-class suburbia. But the reality is that behind the walls of the majority of those homes, there is suffering taking place. Illness. Broken relationships. Financial stress. Depression. Suicidal thoughts. For all of us, what is seen on the outside rarely reveals what is on the inside.
As these thoughts creeped in, I thought of what we see when our view is of Jesus, through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
The man with leprosy (Mark 1:40–45). The paralytic lowered through the roof (Mark 2:1–12). The woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25–34). Jairus (synagogue leader) and his daughter (Mark 5:21–43). The Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1–20). The centurion (and his servant) (Matthew 8:5–13). The blind men (including Bartimaeus) (Mark 10:46–52). The ten lepers (Luke 17:11–19). The widow of Nain (Luke 7:11–17). The crippled woman in the synagogue (Luke 13:10–17).
In all of these, Jesus viewed no suffering from a distance or from a place of comfort. He didn’t send up thoughts or prayers, or put a check in the mail. Instead, He touched the suffering, wept with them, spoke to them and comforted them face to face.
And one day He said this to His disciples – “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.” (John 12:26)
We all live in places where there is suffering, and it isn’t limited to the poor or the homeless. In this fallen world suffering comes to both the sick and the poor and the healthy and the wealty. It is no repecter of persons, and we live among them all, carrying His presence with us.
The question is, are we looking at them from our places of comfort, or from our willingness to reach out and touch them? To get face to face with them, sit in it with them, weep with them, share the love of the Father with them?
This is what makes us followers of Christ. This is what makes us missionaries. Not that we went across the world, but that we touched the suffering around us with the love, compassion, and power of Jesus.
Jesus didn’t have these encounters every day. Many times we read of Him sitting in a boat or in the synagogue, teaching. Sometimes He was just with His disciples and sometimes He went off on His own to be with His Father in prayer. All of this was the ministry of the Messiah, and as He went, He encountered the suffering of humanity and He touched it.
When you think of the scriptures and how they describe Jesus, what word comes to mind? For me, it’s compassion. He was filled with compassion, moved with compassion, and acted out of compassion. He showed compassion far more than He showed empathy. The difference is empathy feels, compassion acts.
We are called to serve Him by following Him. If we are going to do that, we cannot continue to just have a view of the world from our place of comfort.
Father, move us from our complacency, from our love of comfort. Give us the heart to desire to touch those who are suffering around us. Give us compassion more than empathy. I pray that You will make my own comfort zone uncomfortable, and that You will give me face to face encounters with those around me who need Your love and compassion.
Karla Jo Wasion 